News from the Library of Congress

September 2, 1998

Exhibition Commemorating Founding of Czechoslavakia
To Open at Library of Congress

An exhibition commemorating the 80th anniversary of the
founding of Czechoslovakia will be on display at the Library
of Congress September 18 through December 26.

The exhibition will contain a variety of materials
drawn from the collections of the Library of Congress
pertaining to the movement during World War I to create an
independent Czechoslovakia, which was strongly supported by
Czechs and Slovaks living in the United States.

On display will be photographs and correspondence of
leaders of the independence movement, such as Thomas
Masaryk, Milan Stefanik, and Edvard Benes, and a typescript
copy of the Czechoslovak Declaration of Independence from
the Woodrow Wilson Papers, as well as additional
correspondence between President Wilson and Thomas Masaryk.
Posters created in 1918 by the Czech artist Vojtech Preissig
(1873-1944) in support of the independence movement and the
U.S. war effort also will be displayed.

The exhibition will be located in the North Gallery of
the Great Hall of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First
St. S.E. Exhibit hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday
through Saturday.